Humanity

Yesterday, I heard an historian on the radio speculating on the future and exponential evolution of the human species through technology and medicine. He stated flatly that the human species will evolve more in the next 100 years than it has in the previous 100,000. Impressive vision.

The basis of this prediction is the gradual replacement of natural organic parts of the human body with mechanical or cultivated organic parts. The merging of robotics and genetic manipulation with natural development. The implications are staggering.

More human beings in the upper echelons of human populations will live into their second century potentially. They will have access to the newest life-prolonging interventions. The lower echelons of human populations, unless subjected to some form of control, will continue to have more and more children with less and less possibility of a long and healthy life. This obvious parallel process was ignored by yesterday's erudite presenter. The blindness of the privileged academic.

I am neither a Luddite nor a futurist. I like to think both of my feet are on the ground, but still progressing in the direction of knowledge and understanding. So, I am thinking, "Is this really where the human species, as a whole, wishes to go?" Obviously, those who think that cloning or nanotechnology are the salvation of mankind will salivate at this vision of the future. What of the billions of human beings who are far removed from these visions of eternal robotic life and heavenly materialism? Will they be conscripted for labor or will they be swept away?

When I first pondered the historian's vision, I thought, "There is no place for humanism in that future." I subsequently realized that vision, representative of the vision of those who embrace corporate power over human rights and justice, is an outstanding reason for furthering humanist ideals and action in the present.